Tag Archives: love

A year ago I bought a new TV. A nice TV. I shopped for months leading up to the holidays, comparing prices and technology, fully planning on buying the biggest and best TV I could get on one of the super black Friday deals. The weekend before Thanksgiving, on one of my scouting expeditions, I found a deal I couldn’t pass up. It wasn’t what I had planned, but it was less than half the price. It was still 20 inches bigger than what I currently had. My pride swelled even more when I set it up in the family room and my wife pushed the couch back several feet. “It’s too big.” she complained. “I can’t sit that close, it hurts my eyes.” A year later as I watch the ads for the newest 80 inch LCD TV, my TV seems a little less impressive. The shine has worn off and I’m not content. I know a lot of people who would love to have my TV. I say I’m thankful for what I have, but deep down I know if given the chance I’d trade it in for something else in a heartbeat. So can I truly be thankful for something when I’m not content? Continue reading

What would you think if you saw a guy walking through the mall and he had a bull’s eye on the front of his pants right over the fly? You’d probably laugh and think he’s a pervert. I thought of this the other day while I was in the airport and I was walking behind a girl wearing sweatpants with the word “Pink” across the rear. I’ve read the articles and had conversations with women about being treated equally with men, that they’re not “just a piece of meat”, etc.. But here was a young lady intentionally drawing attention to a part of her body that if you said anything to her about, she’d probably slap you.

I was recently on a road trip to visit my relatives and decided to try my luck at the radio dial. While browsing through the stations I stumbled upon a Christian station with a pastor who was talking about how to respond if the world hates you. It caught my attention, so I decided to listen for a few minutes even though I despise talk radio. He said that if the world hates you and rejects you that it’s a good thing because Jesus says “if the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (Jn. 15:18). The pastor then went on to talk about judging a christian by his enemies. He believed that the more enemies you have the better Christian you are because you are living a life rebuking people of their sin.

“Homosexuality is a sin and I will tell someone that. I will still love them and treat them the same because that’s what Jesus would do, but I will still tell them it’s a sin.” This statement came from a great friend of mine as we stayed up late one night talking. He followed up by saying that God calls us to do radical things to follow him and because homosexuality is a sin that means the radical response from someone is to leave that lifestyle; even if it means leaving a stable life and family that they have built together. The disciples left families and business to follow Christ, so why would we be expected to do anything less.

I recently attended my first graveside burial service. The father of a students in my youth group had passed after a long struggle with cancer. The ripple it sent through every student began the moment I told the first group of students about it. It only took seconds for the tears to come as they put an arm around each other. One student ran and as I caught her, she simply buried her head on my shoulder and sobbed. My own emotions and well-being took a back seat as I not only had a student whose father had passed, but an entire youth group in mourning to care for. No one knew what to do, but they knew they didn’t want to be alone. Continue reading

It was my senior year in college. I was the hall mentor in the freshmen and sophomore dorm. I had a room to myself, but the door was always open unless I was studying so that guys could come by and talk. It was about ten o’clock at night and I heard a knock on the door and outside was a friend of mine I had known for several years. He wasn’t from my floor and didn’t come to any of the worships or Bible studies that I led, but it didn’t matter. He just wanted to talk, so of course I said yes and we sat down on the old couch I had dug out of the trash like any good college student does. We weren’t great friends and didn’t hang out or socialize, but we had been part of a study abroad group together for a year and knew each other more than just study partners. I could tell he was nervous, and after a few minutes of chit chat he just came right out and said “I’m gay”. Continue reading

What is True Love? Since moving into our new home, we’ve been much more aware of and interactive with our neighbors than our previous house. We’ve only been here coming a year, but in that short time I’ve watched the life changes of one of the neighbor’s right next door. Shortly after we moved in, I had stopped by the house during the morning and noticed an ambulance and several additional cars parked out front of the next door neighbors. We had seen the elderly couple living there on a few occasions bringing groceries in or something, but never really met them. But for some reason as I saw the ambulance I felt a sudden dread that something had happened.